Getting Dirty From Newspaper Print

I did an interview a couple of weeks ago with a local newspaper about the Twisted book and how I funded it through Kickstarter. They took some pictures of me along with some of the Kickstarter rewards a few days after the interview. The article printed just this past Monday. Here's the online version, mercifully minus the horrid photo of me that accompanied the print version:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/westmoreland/s_767174.html

Sometimes when I do these things I have trouble dealing with misquotes and misinformation, but this one is pretty much on the money. The quotes in the article that Mike Arnzen supposedly said totally melt my brain though. I understand he was my fiction writing professor—and everything I know about writing fiction I learned from him, and everything I've read since then just reaffirms what he taught me—but getting a pat on the back from a mentor is incredibly satisfying.

When I set something that might be a little on the "out there" side free to roam in the public, it's easy to get nervous about its safety. I worry about whether I've pushed anything too far, whether people will get it, whether it will be over everybody's head. But so far things are going well. It looks like Dr. A totally gets it, but he's the one who taught me how to show (my dark side) without telling. I know a couple twenty-somethings who get it, but they've lived with me for years, and how they turned out is probably my fault. I'll apologize to them later. But on top of that, I've also gotten a couple of nice comments on the Kickstarter page and on my personal Facebook page, so I'm starting to think everything's oakey dokey.

Along those same lines, the book got its first review on Amazon, and it's a five-star! Thanks, tonimarie77! I totally owe you dinner and a movie for that one.

In the beginning...

A little background before I get too far along: I started writing fiction in the spring of 2004 when I took a "Writing of Fiction" class while working toward my Bachelor's. I took the class because:

1. I thought I could learn something about writing in general, and use that information to write picture books, and
2. I had to take a writing class to satisfy my core credit requirements.

And let's be honest, #1 wouldn't have felt pressing enough to have taken the class if it hadn't been for #2.

So I took it, and I wrote.

My writing professor was Dr. Michael Arnzen, winner of multiple Bram Stokers for horror writing. Turns out Dr. A likes the twisted stuff, so I was greeted with a healthy dose of professional encouragement.

Besides writing, we did an awful lot of reading which, really, only makes sense. I was never much of a reader growing up (I figured out later I was either reading things that really didn't interest me or I was reading from mass market paperbacks where the type was too small, the margins too narrow and my mind too ready to wander off the page). In this class, I finally learned how to read fiction.

As for the writing part, I hated writing before I got there, but was willing to try and learn. Even after I started getting the hang of it, I still hated to write. I told Dr. A once that writing hurt. He said, "Then you must be doing it right."

So here I am, in the midst of writing an entire book filled with words and ideas that I've strung together. And it still hurts, and I avoid it as long as possible. But sometimes the end results outweigh the throbbing it takes to get there, so I'll willingly trudge onward.

And for this, I thank you, Dr. A.